Villanova head coach Jay Wright celebrates with his players after defeating Michigan in the championship game at the 2018 Final Four in San Antonio.David J. Phillip/The Associated Press
No team has made more three-pointers, nor launched more, than Alabama in the past four seasons. And nothing will shake coach Nate Oats from believing they’re at the core of building a winner in modern basketball.
Teams might struggle to match the Crimson Tide’s sheer volume heading into March Madness, but they’re leaning into those long-distance shots, too.
“Finding efficient shots is at the top of what we do,” Oats said recently. “It’s at the top of what everybody in the NBA is looking at is generating efficient shots. And if you’re not thinking about how to get open catch-and-shoot threes, I don’t think you’re thinking about creating efficient shots.”
This marks the 40th season with the three-pointer fully integrated into college basketball, an advancement that has transformed the sport since its 1986-87 introduction. Years of pounding the ball inside to bigs have given way to skilled players stretching defences to create space for shooters to take those matchup-tilting shots.
In the NCAA tournament, the three is an equalizer capable of igniting seismic upsets like Middle Tennessee’s takedown of Michigan State in 2016 or the first-ever 16-vs-1 win with UMBC beating Virginia in 2018. Going cold can just as easily mean an abrupt end to the season. So the question remains: How much should a team rely on the three in March?
Division I teams fittingly have taken nearly 40 per cent of their shots from behind the arc in this 40th season of the three, yet a fraction of Final Four teams and NCAA champions in the three-point era have utilized it to this year’s levels with their seasons on the line.
Higher volume
At its core, the three-pointer is a volatile bet.
The reward can be far-reaching offensive efficiency beyond simply the 50 per cent added value compared to a traditional field goal. But it boasts a tougher conversion rate as officials have moved the arc back multiple times — from 19 feet, 9 inches to 20 feet, 9 inches in 2008-09, then to 22 feet, 1 3/4 inches to match the international distance for 2019-20.
In this April 4, 2016, file photo, Villanova's Kris Jenkins makes the game-winning three-point shot at the NCAA Final Four championship game against North Carolina, in Houston.David J. Phillip/The Associated Press
As a result, the three-point shooting percentage has barely moved. Division I teams have bounced from around 33-35 per cent shooting on threes going back to the 2002-03 season, with this year at 34.1 per cent entering the week.
Yet threes have gone from accounting for 32.1 per cent of all shot attempts in 2002-03 to a 24-season high of 39.5 per cent this year, according to SportRadar. And threes account for 29.8 per cent of all made shots in Division I, up from around 25 per cent in 2002-03.
Those are thresholds rarely reached by teams that have pushed all the way to the sport’s final weekend.
– Only 28 of 152 (18.4 per cent) teams to reach the Final Four in the three-point era have had threes account for this year’s percentage of their made shots;
– Only 21 of those Final Four teams (13.8 per cent) had threes account for this year’s percentage of shot attempts;
– And seven of 38 champions (18.4 per cent) have had threes account for more than 39 per cent of their shot attempts, including the past three winners in UConn (2023-24) and Florida (2025).
Villanova’s two championships under Jay Wright remain outliers. Notably, his 2018 winner that blew through six tournament games to win it all behind eventual NBA players Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges and Donte DiVincenzo held the all-time highest marks among the champs; threes accounted for 38 per cent of the Wildcats’ made shots and 47.5 per cent of their attempts.
His other champion, in 2016, won on a buzzer-beating three-pointer by Kris Jenkins.
“You’ve got to be able to shoot the three to go deep in the tournament,” the retired Wildcats coach said. “Not just because threes are more valuable than twos, but now the way teams play defence, if you can’t shoot threes, they’re going to load up on your three-point shooters and take them away. And they’re gonna force you to make non-shooters make plays.”
Labaron Philon Jr. of the Alabama Crimson Tide dribbles against the Ole Miss Rebels during the first half in the quarter-final game of the 2026 SEC men's basketball tournament at Bridgestone Arena on Friday in Nashville.Johnnie Izquierdo/Getty Images
The right looks
That’s Oats’ focus, too.
The Crimson Tide’s 4,436 attempted threes are 339 more than the next closest Division I team, according to SportRadar. Alabama has shot 35.5 per cent behind the arc in that span, with threes accounting for 48.3 per cent of Alabama’s shot attempts.
The approach helped make Alabama the No. 1 overall seed in 2023 and powered a Final Four run in 2024 and last year’s trip to the Elite Eight after hitting a tournament-record 25 threes in a Sweet 16 romp against BYU.
“The math part of it is how can you create the most efficient offence, and how can you try to keep the other team from running the efficient offence?” said Oats, whose team is the Midwest Region’s 4-seed. “Well if you’re all in on getting the most efficient shots you can, the three-point line and taking threes has to be a part of that. It just does.”
Yet two of those runs ended when the Tide couldn’t hit from outside. That 2023 team led by eventual No. 2 overall NBA pick Brandon Miller went 3 for 27 (11.1 per cent) on threes in a Sweet 16 loss to San Diego State. The Tide went 8 for 32 (25 per cent) in last year’s regional-final loss to Duke.
Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino, now at St. John’s, has never shied from the three, going back to Providence’s unexpected Final Four in the first season of the three-pointer to cutting down the nets at Kentucky in 1996, followed by Louisville in 2013 in a later-vacated title push.
Can a team win it all firing off all these threes?
“One hundred per cent – if you defend the three. That’s the key,” said Pitino, whose Big East champion is the East Region’s 5-seed. “It all comes down to defence. It’s not how many you make, how many you take, but how many you stop. So, if everybody is shooting the three, the team that’s gonna win it is the team that defends the three.”
Duke's Dame Sarr (7) attempts a three-pointer during a game against Virginia in Durham, N.C. last month.Ben McKeown/The Associated Press
Gravity’s pull
Duke coach Jon Scheyer is only in his fourth season as successor to retired Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski, so he’s been willing to adjust his approach in these early years of his tenure. That’s included an uptick in three-point usage.
“For me, it’s actually not even the fact of shooting more threes,” Scheyer said. “It’s about having the threat to shoot the three. And I think that’s the biggest key, is spacing. ... Because that’s what opens up drives. That’s what open up free throws. That’s what opens second-chance points. So I think naturally by having really good spacing, you do end up shooting more threes.”
Duke’s first two teams took 36.4 per cent of their shots from three-point range, with threes accounting for 28 per cent of their made baskets. Last year, those numbers jumped to 44.6 per cent and 34.9 per cent; it made sense considering Duke was led by No. 1 overall NBA draft pick Cooper Flagg and No. 4 pick Kon Knueppel – who has set an NBA rookie single-season three-point record and has a league-best 238.
This year’s team uses what Scheyer has likened more to a “smashmouth” approach with a big frontline led by freshman NBA prospect and Associated Press first-team All-American Cameron Boozer. And yet, even as the No. 1 overall tournament seed has routinely pummeled teams in the paint and on the glass, the three-pointer accounts for a similar percentage of Duke’s attempted shots (44.4 per cent) and made baskets (31.8 per cent).
Scheyer figures it’s about finding the right balance in shot selection, along with a good shooter’s “gravity” in pulling defenders from the paint.
“You can still establish yourself inside while you still shoot threes,” Scheyer said. “Now if you’re shooting other shots and just living on the perimeter, well yeah, I think it’s tough to win that way, because the best shot you can get is a layup or a dunk or get to the free-throw line. But if you’re shooting threes, you better be really good at it.”